In this episode I continue the discussion on whether Apple and iTunes are the best or worst thing to happen to podcasting. I also share 7 reasons why podcasting is a perfect interactive marketing tool. This segment is based on a blog post from my podcasting tips blog. Finally, I share another podcast promotion tip.

4 Comments

As the host and producer of the Wine for Newbies podcast, I can say that it has been great to be one of the featured podcasts in the Food subcategory for the last several weeks, but I can understand the frustration of those whose efforts are not receiving similar recognition.

In the long run, I think Apple is probably better off making sure that these featured podcasts in the iTunes Store get changed each week. Otherwise, listeners are going to begin to see podcasting as sort of the early days of cable television–just a few channels, and once you’re familiar with them, you begin to look elsewhere for content. So, I’m hopeful that Apple will return to its former practice of changing the featured podcasts each week so that more people get exposure for their podcasts, and listeners will see just how rich and diverse the podcast offerings are.

But, until then, I’ll continue to enjoy the featured spot.

Chris said,

Hello from Finland!

Interesting shows you have here. Well done!

In my personal opinion, Apple is certainly a leader in driving the podcasting phenomenon the past few years especially. I use a 30GB iPod video and obviously iTunes. I really like iTunes personally but it certainly does take time to figure out the overall UI behaviour.

The podcast directory is OK and works OK for the user but as you mention, if there are changes with a podcast address, there are difficulties in figuring out how to keep things in sync. Not all users are experts and may end up blaming the podcast for the efailure rather than something at iTunes…or viceversa.

More dynamic interfacing to other sources would be great! There are partners or sponsors of content that are somhow provided through iTunes but the whole range of content available isn’t accessible through iTunes, only a small portion of it.

Example, audiobooks are listed primarily on 5 pages in the iTunes store. Clearly there are more books available for sale but the user has to leave the iTunes store experience and go to a separate external webpage to activate a script that enables a user to purchase audiobooks directly from that external website, download it, and have it available for use in iTunes.

While this can be seen as convenient, I feel that the fact you have to leave the iTunes store, only to purchase something that is ultimately to be used in iTunes is inconvenient.

Amazon.com and Play.com are good examples of how to more dynamically control the whole experience in that not only do Amazon themselves provide items for purchase but they also have partnered suppliers offering items directly through the Amazon’s interface! In addition, Amazon still provides the technology of suggesting similar interested items to you, providing you with potentially interesting items that you may not have even known existed.

This, in my opinion, is one big annoyance with iTunes and why I think Microsoft will benchmark something better and more useful for the user in the coming year or two….at least a gut feeling.

[...] As a sort of experiment, I’ve decided to cross-post show notes from episodes of my podcast for podcasters (The Podcasting Underground) here on this blog. These will be text only posts. The MP3 enclosures won’t be included in this feed. To receive the podcast files automatically you’ll still need to subscribe to The Podcasting Underground feed.I know a lot of listeners consume podcast content without subscribing to the feed, so it seems like a good idea to point to it in as many places as I can. And so…here’s the latest episode:The Podcasting Underground #18In this episode I continue the discussion on whether Apple and iTunes are the best or worst thing to happen to podcasting. This includes several comments sent in by listeners. I also share 7 reasons why podcasting is a perfect interactive marketing tool. This segment is based on a blog post from my podcasting tips blog. Finally, I share another podcast promotion tip.Click here to listen now [...]